Coronavirus, Capitalism in Crisis and the Perversity of Public Health in Bolsonaro's Brazil

Int J Health Serv. 2021 Jan;51(1):18-30. doi: 10.1177/0020731420965137. Epub 2020 Oct 18.

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the meaning of the coronavirus crisis as an integral part of the totality of the capitalist crisis and its implication in the health area of Brazilian capitalism, in which the rise of ultraliberal and neofascist policies is witnessed by the Bolsonaro government. To this end, we opted for a historical-dialectical materialist analysis of the situation experienced between the global beginning of the pandemic until the month of May 2020 in Brazil. The article is structured in 2 parts: The first discusses the problem of agrifood systems in the context of capitalism in crisis and its effects on the spread of diseases such as the coronavirus, and the second discusses the neglect of the Bolsonaro government in facing the COVID-19 pandemic and the Brazilian universal health system. Evidence shows that the Bolsonaro government has led to more deaths and more of the barbarism of capitalism. The scenario after the pandemic will be one of a country with a more or less intense capitalist crisis depending on the resistance of workers in the defense of public health and lives.

Keywords: Brazil; coronavirus; crisis; pandemic; politics; public health.

MeSH terms

  • Brazil / epidemiology
  • COVID-19 / epidemiology*
  • COVID-19 / mortality
  • Capitalism*
  • Delivery of Health Care / economics*
  • Health Policy
  • Humans
  • Pandemics
  • Politics
  • Public Health
  • SARS-CoV-2